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6/13/2011 @ 3:09PM1,370 views

Zero Degrees Of Separation Between Work And Emotions

There was no such thing as work-life balance after the September 11 terror attacks as a national radio reporter in New York City. There wouldn’t be for many months to come. That pivotal experience shifted my career focus toward deconstructing what I call, the work-life merge. The pain of a nation did not get left at the door of the workplace.

There’s Emotion on Your Sleeve

The working and living experience collided in a way that forced companies, the financial sector and the world to acknowledge that we were human beings at work. Why? Because we wore our pain on our faces and our emotions on our sleeves at work. It was a harbinger of things to come, and a commentary on the few degrees of separation that exist between work and life.

For two years, she explored Americans’ attitude towards emotions at work. She writes of how work and family life consistently bleed into each other and how technology has fueled the process. A process that essentially gives management permission to infringe on our downtime.

“The membranes between private life and work, especially office work, have always been porous, but today employers and employees expect accessibility and accountability pretty much round-the-clock,” writes Kreamer.

The American working pool has been thrust into what I refer to as “a work-related field of cognitive dissonance.” Stuck in a vacuum of perpetual information overload, courtesy technology and our human response to it, we’re also pressed to pay attention at work and excel- or suffer potential consequences.

Here’s how it goes: Unlimited incoming feeds Perceived Availability. There is an Expectation of Instant Gratification and on our part, a Desire to Deliver. It all leads back to Unlimited Interruptions. Our choices about how we structure our work-life merge becomes crucial, as I wrote recently in a post, Mastering the Art of Choice Toward Work-Life Balance on my WorkLifeNation.com Blog.

Consequences of the Work-Life Merge

The intermingling of work and life comes with the good the bad and the ugly of these inextricably linked worlds. That means we’re checking on the kids and our elderly parents from work , and at home we’re checking work related e-mails upon awakening. All while carrying the burden of unknown consequences. We wonder, “Was that text message truly what I meant to say?” lest we hurt someone’s feelings or aggravate the boss.

No Rules for the New Working World

Kreamer poses that there are “ no clear rules for this new working world.” The only guidepost, as I see it, is to insist upon an “infusion of the human” in the workplace. That means addressing the emotional component of being a human being. As Kreamer writes:

Overtly acknowledging how and in what measure anger, anxiety, fear and pleasure color and shape our working lives can help us manage those emotions and use them to our benefit, both at work and at home.

Again, there are few degrees of separation between work and life. It’s really been that way for a while. The pink elephant in the room made an appearance for me, 10 years ago.

Full Circle

I can remember gazing into a bathroom mirror after covering the re-opening of the New York Stock Exchange after 9/11. I saw a veneer of ash on my face, my hands and my clothing.

Tears poured only for a moment. Couldn’t allow any more. Although I learned that my friend and photographer Glenn Pettit was missing in Tower 2, I was on deadline. My cell had died and the landlines were tied up, but I did get a smile and kind words from my then-news director Bob Moon of NPR’s Marketplace Report. That human encounter made all the difference, a desperately needed human touch of emotion, compassion and empathy at work.

How do you handle emotions at work? Is there support in your workplace when life goes awry? I’d like to hear your experience.

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